Culture

illustration of two hands holding a copy of the book The Let Them Theory
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Stefanie Keenan / Getty.

Where Did ‘Let Them’ Come From?

Years before Mel Robbins published her best-selling self-help book, a struggling writer posted a poem with a similar message.

photo collage of black-and-white images from movies with nuclear mushroom cloud, missiles firing, maps, and mustard-yellow accents
Photo-illustration by Mike McQuade. Sources: United Archives GmbH / Alamy; Hulton Archive / Getty; LMPC / Getty.

Damn You All to Hell!

How Hollywood taught a generation to fear nuclear catastrophe